This is a grant application for a first of its kind one day interdisciplinary conference in the Bronx, NY on the basics of social marketing for New York City health professionals and health profession students. The conference is entitled "Social Marketing Tools for Improving Health Programs and Services." The conference, developed by an interdisciplinary planning committee from Lehman College, City University of New York will be held Friday, June 23, 2000 at Lehman College in the Bronx, New York. The conceptual basis of this project is Diffusion of Innovation Theory. The goals of this conference are: (1) to provide tools to and build skills among New York City health program/service planners and providers to increase the use of social marketing principles and practices to address urban chronic disease (2) to create a model for regional/local social marketing conferences (that includes a study of health care/education providers' perceptions of social marketing and anticipated barriers to its adoption and implementation) that can be replicated nationwide The intent of the conference and the complementary research project is to improve program and service planning skills and to identify bridges and barriers to implementing the social marketing process among health organizations that are trying to meet the community's chronic disease prevention and management challenges.